Building Blocks
by the lola
Summary: Daphne/Blaise one shots and drabbles. Sad, happy, cute, angsty. Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

A/N- This is going to be a collection of drabble/one-shots which are probably going to be linked, but by no means will they be in chronological order. I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Daphne crept along the corridor, the ghosts of her past in her wake just as they always were. She heard the faint sounds of her fiance being _pleasured_, and upon looking to her heart hoping to feel it break, clench, twitch... All hope was crushed as soon as it was born because all that she felt in place of her heart was stone.

As she neared the room - her room, _their _room, the lustful sounds stopped for empty seconds and her already uneven breathing hitched in fear of him discovering her... She didn't want that, not now - she wanted solitude, just to be alone.

The pain she was feeling... It was harrowing, simply harrowing. It throbbed from her skin all the way through to her soul leaving no room for thinking, for feeling, for _breathing_.

It just... She just... She couldn't make sense of it all. Why she was engaged to this man, and not to the man she had loved but left behind and promised herself to never speak of again.

Really though, she knew - the answers were there in the back of her head and she refused to acknowledge them. But right now, while the voices were screaming hurtful, vile things at her, urging her to break things and to go into meltdown... She was too close, too close to letting the voices win the fight and too close to breaking things, cutting, doing anything to cause more pain on the outside than the monster on the inside did.

So she was finally going to do what her ridiculously overpaid therapist told her to do: focus everything on something when things are threatening to fall apart quicker than she can hold them together.

And today, her focus was on where things went wrong.

_Worthless. Worthless! Look in that mirror, you're worthless. You're absolutely nothing. You know what you want to do to that mirror, don't you ugly? _

But she ignored the urge to smash it - to even look into it, and she continued to shuffle down the curling staircase, away from the sounds of betrayal.

_Come on darling, you can't go a day without hurting yourself more than this does. You think you're strong? You think not drawing blood from yourself for the day is strong? What about food? Are you going to go downstairs and make yourself dinner? Open the fridge as if it's the most normal thing in the world? No. No, you're not. Focusing on the one thing that hurts you the most doesn't kill me sweetie, and it doesn't make you better either._

She clenched her jaw and decided that she didn't need to conquer everything in one day. She just wanted to pick her life apart from the seams - from start to finish, and then piece it all back together better than it fell together over the years.

Her eyes lingered at the kitchen door, scanning over the kitchen table and the food that had been left out by the housekeeper even though she was well aware it will be left untouched.

She swallowed hard, and continued walking towards the only room in the house that she felt comfortable in - the only room in the entire house that _he _never went in.

_That's right, walk on past... No one wants you to eat. No one will find you any more pretty if you eat. Walk on past._

As an all-to-familiar shiver ran along her spine, she pushed the heavy door open and slumped on the sole chair in the room. She closed her tired eyes, their soreness no longer bothering her.

The days were too long now, each second going by agonizingly slow with no hopes of distraction. Sometimes, Graham would show an interest. He paid for a therapist to come by once a week, tried to get Pansy to call her everyday. Probably, somewhere deep in all of that ice, he had some sort of feelings for her. After all, why would he go to these lengths for her if he didn't? Why would he still want her even though she was broken?

This led her to think to the root of all of this: her Father. If her Mother were still alive, none of this would have happened. Daphne firmly stuck to this belief because nothing went right once she had died. Her Mother made her Father a warm, happy person - her death broke him more than he cared to show and all Daphne had ever wanted to do was please him - he fed her irrational fear of failure, of disappointing people. And when he had asked her to do the one thing she didn't want from being a pureblood, she did it.

* * *

Blaise slumped against the bar desk, finally fed up of drowning his sorrows in alcohol. It was what had broken them apart, it was what had pulled him apart, it was the root of many of his problems.

Daphne wouldn't be there in the morning to pull open the curtains and force a laugh at Blaises' reaction to the blinding sunlight paired with a hangover. Daphne wouldn't be there to help him and he wouldn't be there to help her because finally, he'd chased her away... He had pushed the one person he loved the most away.

And as the intoxicated realisation hit for the first time in a while, he released a strangled sob for the love he had lost. He'd hurt her, he'd truly hurt her and he hadn't bothered to try and win her back, instead letting her become engaged.

But did that mean he had done the most loving thing he could? That was what some would say, but he didn't believe it. He'd spoken with Pansy, and the way she had described it made it seem like Daphne was fading away. He'd heard the rumours - the 'unhinged' rumours, just like back in Hogwarts, and he knew just how true they could be.

And it hurt - he hurt. It all hurt.

What was a drunken man to do at eight o' clock at night?

* * *

And then there was Astoria, her thoughts continued. Astoria who happily settled into her arranged marriage with Draco, Astoria who was just the perfect daughter, the perfect pureblood, the perfect wife, the perfect woman. Astoria who had despised Daphne for her entire life even when Daphne's world was being pulled from under her feet.

_Is this really helping? This is the most painful thing you could do... You know what you really want to do. You can hide them under the pillows but you know that they're still there._

And she was drawn out of her thoughts again - the voices were less aggressive but they were getting to her again. They were right because this was the most painful thing she had ever done... Everything was better when Blaise was right at the back of her mind. Everything was better when there was only pain on the outside, more painful than the inside.

Could she leave Graham? Did she have the strength in her to do that? Was there possibly just enough fight, just enough love left in her heart to push her through it?

She hoped so, but she doubted it. The pile of red velvet pillows in the corner glared at her, asking her to throw them out the way to find the gleaming, sharp treasure that lay underneath them.

_Oh come on! You're not strong enough for this... You're weak. All you are is weak. Weak, pathetic, disgusting. Go and weigh yourself, look in a mirror - you'll see._

Maybe she was focusing on the wrong thing. Maybe the therapist meant she should draw, or read, or go out... Not contemplating going to find the love of her life.

Then she heard the hoarse shout that made the emptiness in her stomach churn and chills run through her body. Clearly his toy was gone, and he now wanted the real fun to begin.

Well today, she wouldn't do it. She wouldn't give in. As terrified as she was, today she would win. She would win against the voices and she would win against him.

_You'll never win._

Taking her wand in her trembling hand, she willed herself to make it work. In a whisper she locked the door, before curling up on her chair and closing her eyes to the world.

* * *

Back at his apartment, he stumbled around and tried to find his sober-up potions. Finding the neon liquid, he downed two vials to make the effects kick in quicker.

He was finding her. He didn't care that Montague was a complete psycho when he wanted to be, he was finding her. It didn't matter if she didn't want him or if she had moved on - it mattered that Blaise would have at least tried.

No matter what, he couldn't have this constant weight on his shoulders. The constant 'what ifs' and waking up every morning expecting to see her face. He couldn't do it anymore - he just couldn't.

He had to pull himself together and push the past behind him. Voldemort was dead - he wasn't a Death Eater anymore, never was at heart... He'd done it to save Daphne, to keep her alive. He had killed for her, been forced to relive the worst moments of existence in his nightmares every night and the only saving grace had been waking up to _her_. Well, that and the alcohol - it was the only thing that made the memories stop rewinding and playing over again and again and again causing every moment to be agonizing. It all had to go - had to be put behind him, for good.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the floo and grabbed a handful of green powder. His whole body shook with nerves and excitement - he didn't have a plan, he didn't have time for that.

It was now or never.

* * *

Daphne jolted awake at the sound of furious banging at the door, as well as the dark skinned man stumbling in through the floo of the room. The room was enchanted so when it was locked no one could come in, but that didn't block the floo.

And she blinked again and again, hating her mind for conjuring such an image. She was dreaming - she often had this dream. But now, there was only one thing to do to stop all this for at least the night that would follow. She was giving in, loosing to herself as she always did. Drowsily she shuffled over to the pile of pillows, pulling the blades out from bottom of the pile. Blocking everything out, she shuffled through her various treasures, trying to choose the one that would cause the prettiest but most painful scar.

"Daphne... What are you doing?" Blaise leapt over to her, pushing the blades out of her reach.

The blonde haired woman sat wide eyed, staring towards the man her every thought revolved around.

Blaise looked confusedly towards the door that was being hammered on, and back at the frail witch that was staring unblinking at him.

"Daphne... I - say something..." His voice shook horrendously.

"It's you... You're here... It's actually you..." She took a shaky breath. "You came. You finally came."

"You were expecting me?" He frowned.

"No," She said simply.

Blaise didn't follow - he was almost as speechless as she was. His Daphne... She was not sitting in front of him. This was an emaciated, pale, broken Daphne, and he'd left her to become this.

Suddenly, she leapt into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist like she always used to. She put her head into the crook of his neck, and sobbed into his shirt. There was nothing either of them could say right now, but the silence spoke louder than words. He kissed her head softly.

"This is ridiculous, isn't it?... But then again, we always were." He broke the silence, finally.

"I should have never left you... I should have never listened to my Dad, or tried to be like Astoria, or set foot in this house."

"It's okay... I should have come to find you and I didn't. But I've found you now and I want you to come with me - whatever our problems are, we can face them together... Mend each other." He wrapped his arms tighter around the frail and shaking girl.

"But my things...?"

"You don't need them - I can buy you whatever you need and whatever you want. All we need is each other, Daph."

"That's all we've ever needed."

Nothing was perfect, nothing was okay, but the only way it ever could be was each other - they both knew that.

* * *

A/N- Well, I haven't written anything I'm really happy with and proud of in a while, but I am actually so happy with this! I really hope you all like it, please review.

This is written for my challenge (joining in for fun) Favourite Couple Scenario Challenge/Competition Speed Writing. I give a scenario every five days and the first was 'person A is engaged and person B tries to win them over'


	2. Chapter 2

Daphne laid back on the roof, arms behind her and propping her up just slightly. She sucked in a long breath through her teeth, and shivered as the bitter wind rushed through the air.

She counted in her head the days that she had not talked to Blaise. _1…2…3…5…7_, it had been a week – the longest time she had gone without talking to him and it was excruciating. It felt like a hole had been shot through her heart and it wouldn't be filled until he was by her side again, telling her everything would be okay.

It wasn't even as if they had had an argument, he had simply asked her not to talk to him. He didn't say why, but really, she knew – he wanted to make his decision regarding a certain _tattoo _without her opinion 'clouding' his judgement. Well, her opinion should be clouding his judgement because it wasn't as if Blaise actually w_anted_ to be a Death Eater.

Her life was in his hands, he'd said. Well guess what? She didn't care. Her life was in his, and his life was in hers – it was a sick little game the Death Eaters were playing, taking their fragile love and twisting it into something ugly and unrecognizable.

The wind screamed again and she sat forward, tucking her hands behind her knees and shaking terribly from a mixture of her anger and the freezing winter weather. His decision had better be soon, and he'd better not be joining because it would tear her apart. Either way, his decision would tear her apart because if he didn't join she'd be dead, but if he did then it would always be her fault for being the weak girl that they could exploit and ruining Blaises' life.

She didn't even have to turn around to know that _he_ was standing behind her. And she only had to glance towards him to know the decision that he'd made. Never had Daphne been an angry person, but right now she was completely overwhelmed with anger and sadness.

"Blaise… you can't be – you're not… please tell me I'm wrong," She stuttered, tears welling up in her cerulean blue eyes. She said it, willing herself to have gotten the wrong impression – for him to seem so defeated because _they_ were going to kill her, but no… his eyes said it all.

"You weren't seriously expecting me to let them kill you were you?" He stuck his neck out, wide eyed.

She pushed herself up from the roof so she was standing in front of him, although she only came up to just under his shoulders. "Yes – I expected you to understand me, to understand what this would do to you… I, I…" She trailed off as her voice became clouded and hoarse with tears and anger.

"Daphne, I can deal with this…" He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to stare her in the eye, but she avoided his gaze and shook his hands off angrily.

"You think you can deal with it but you don't _know_! Draco thought he could deal with it, but he's friendless and hated… fading away and no one even cares enough to notice. His skin is shades paler than it ever was, his eyes are outlined by grey bags daily – he is practically an insomniac now, he is a social recluse, and he and his family are hated by both sides of this brewing war. He thought he could handle it but he _can't_… don't you understand?" Her voice wobbled as she spoke – she was proud for finally speaking the truth even though her voice shook, just as her mother had always told her to.

"Fine… maybe I won't be able to deal with it, but I'll sure as hell try."

Daphne balled her hands up into little fists and pounded them angrily against Blaises' sturdy chest, knowing she wasn't hurting him but still showing her frustration. "So you can handle torturing people – people who we go to school with, people who are kind, people who love you, and people who you love… people who have done absolutely nothing wrong? You can handle killing innocent children while their mothers watch, loving mothers while their children watch… you could handle killing your own family? Because those people are sick, and they can now ask anything of you if they use me as a threat… you've shown them that." Tears were rolling down her face by this point – she knew his decision was made and now he was a Death Eater there was no going back, but it didn't matter! He had to understand…

Blaise fell silent with Daphnes' end in speech. After a pregnant pause, he whispered, "I'll do it for you. As long as I have you-"

She cut him off, "-But don't you see? They will pull us apart just as if I _were_ dead! It would have been better if you had just let them kill me! Don't you see how selfish it was of you? Now I'm going to have to go through heartbreak and my life being pulled from under my feet over and over and over and over again – we're going to fall, _I'm_ going to fall, and eventually, you won't be able to catch me when I do."

"You think I'm weak," He ground out, "You think I'm selfish? I don't understand _how_ you could possibly think doing _this_-" He paused to pull his sleeve back and reveal the ugly black skull tattoo hiding underneath it, "-to save your _life_, is selfish! Daphne, we will not fall - we do not break! I'm Blaise, you're Daphne… we're us and we're strong."

She shook her head sadly, "No Blaise, we're not strong – we're fragile and it could take the slightest thing to push us apart."

"But I won't let it!" He finally allowed himself to shout, but immediately regretted it upon seeing Daphne flinch.

"I can't deal with this Blaise – I'm empty without you, but the thought of what you've done might make me even emptier." Her heart literally shattered as she started to say the one thing she promised herself she would never… they were always perfect for each other, soul mates, invincible. But they weren't – nothing was invincible and she now saw that.

"Daphne… you can't do this…" Blaise caramel eyes widened again, this time lined with tears and desperation – his whole body shook with the fear of losing her.

"I think we should quit while we're ahead – before they pull us apart." She leant up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips, letting their tears mingle for empty seconds. They pulled apart and she shuffled across the rooftop towards the window, sliding through it before she allowed the terrifyingly violent sobs to wrack her body.

* * *

**A/N- **Hey lovelies! The scenario for my Your Favourite Couple Scenarios Challenge/Competition was Your couple has the worst disagreement they will ever have. With Blaise and Daphne, I have basically their whole lives up to about 23 planned out, after writing so many stories of them being different ages, so straight away I knew this argument would be their worst - after all, they aren't an argumentative couple. Also, the couple are in sixth year here - remember I said they wouldn't be in chronological order? But, they will all add up to the same story of their lives - no different versions, for now anyway.

Anyhow, thank you all for the reviews last chapter - any chance of leaving one again? ;) they are much appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

_**FIFTH YEAR, BY THE LAKE.**  
_

_They lay side by side, staring up at the sky. Blaise wasn't too sure what they were actually looking for, but Daphne said that he could see anything he wanted to see in the clouds if he used his imagination. Right now… he saw nothing. He couldn't concentrate – she was becoming too much._

_Daphne was taking up almost every single thought that entered Blaises' head. She had managed to seep through his skin, his bones, his muscles, his veins, his mind, and now his heart and soul too… it was the worst and the best feeling in the world, love – he was sure that was what he was feeling. His aunt had always said he would know when it was love, and now he __**knew**__._

_But there was a problem, and that was the very girl that haunted his thoughts. He knew Daphne loved him, but she wasn't necessarily __**in**__ love with him – Daphne had love in her heart for everyone, it didn't mean she wanted to spend forever with them all. Everyone was good to Daphne, everything could be justified in some form and nothing was evil. So what was he to do? _

_It had always seemed as if there would be no problems with the way they had decided to start their relationship… if that was what one could call it. There was sort of agreement between them, they were together and didn't see anyone else, they kissed and they cuddled and everyone knew them as a couple. Yet there were no labels, no expectations… _

_He looked over at her angel-like face; the sunlight highlighted her dainty features beautifully. She had a spray of tan freckles across her nose, perfect alabaster skin, pastel pink rosebud lips, and beautiful wavy golden locks splayed out around her face. She stared up at the clouds through those cerulean blue eyes, and her long, dark eyelashes cast a shadow across her face. Noticing Blaise staring, she turned her head slightly and smiled that perfect smile – the perfectly fake smile that hid all of the unhappiness she'd had and was still experiencing. _

_He could offer her every opinion he had, disagree with her on occasion, tell her how beautiful and perfect she was, point out the falseness of her smile, accept her on her silent days, be by her side through the whispers and the comments… but he couldn't tell her he loved her – he didn't want her to not understand the meaning behind it._

"_I really love you Blaise…" She sighed, lacing her fingers into his._

_His eyes widened, were they really that in rhythm? "What did you just say Daph?" _

_She looked up at him through her dark eyelashes. "I love you." And she smiled a rare, genuine smile._

"_You do?" He frowned._

"_Of course, you mean the most to me out of everyone in the entire world." She turned away from him again, fixing her gaze back on the clouds. "Look, that cloud is shaped like a Hippogriff!" _

_He shook his head, realizing he had had nothing to worry about after all. "I love you too." _

"_I know," She murmured softly._

* * *

**Present, Blaises' house.**

"You were worried about us saying I love you right before I said it?" Daphne laughed softly.

"I know… I should have always been expecting a random declaration of love from you, Daphne." He raised his eyebrow and stroked the soft skin of her palm.

She snuggled closer to him in his – their bed, she corrected herself. "It wasn't a big deal to me, honestly. I'd known I loved you for a long time, I just assumed you knew."

"I did know, really. It's just when I got thinking about it, you love everyone." He pressed his lips together in a thin smile because really, that was a reason for why he loved her.

"I love no one as much as I love you, always remember that." She ran a dainty hand through her wavy locks, and smiled – her real smile, the first one in years.

* * *

**A/N- **The scenario for my competition this time was 'your couple reminisce'... I thought it had to be a first, and I've already written a lot of their firsts but not the first I love you. So here it is :) The present in this story is the 'aftermath' of the events in chapter one, any other chapters are parts of their life up to/after this. Please don't forget to review!


	4. Chapter 4

Daphne leant back against the headboard of the bed, eyes scanning the darkness around her. This was always a problem – sleeping, since she was eight or nine… her mind was always restless, or filled with the worst things about her life. Either that or the voices would manage to wriggle their way back into her mind when they hadn't found her in the daylight hours.

Usually though, she could sleep if she was with Blaise. In the two years she hadn't seen or heard from him, sleep was a gift that was barely ever given to her. Those damn last moments between them would just play again and again and again until she wanted to scream, and the only release from that was pain.

But tonight was her painful reminder that just because she had Blaise back, it didn't mean she would go right back to normal. The voices were kinder and calmer, but they were still whispering at the back of her mind. Food wasn't suddenly a friend… it was never going to be a friend to her. And the only thing she could do for now to keep her cutting at bay was an elastic band trick Blaise had suggested she try. It wasn't the best feeling – it didn't offer the same escapism that cutting did, but it was something, and something was better than nothing.

They had been back in each other's company for almost six months – their love story was a mad one but it was a unique one too, and it proved to her that they were soul mates. But all of this, the engagement and the whole nearly being married thing… it played on Daphne's mind now much more than it would have five years ago.

Where was their relationship going? She knew kids weren't an option for them, at least for now. Around the time of the war, she had promised herself to never bring children into a world full of such hatred. She wasn't stable enough for children then, but now… now she had spiralled uncontrollably downwards and there was probably no way she would ever want nor be able to care for children.

"Daph?" Blaise mumbled groggily, groping at the covers.

"Yeah?" She whispered softly, reaching for his hand.

"You should sleep." His grip on her hand tightened.

"I can't," She said tiredly. She couldn't help but feel bad because this happened most nights – she didn't mean to or want to wake him, but it was like he couldn't sleep properly unless she was too.

"What you thinking about?" He sighed and pushed himself into a sitting position.

"The future…"

"What about it?"

"Exactly, what about it?"

He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, "You're silly, for thinking that."

"For thinking what?"

"That we don't have a future together."

Then she sighed, because he always knew exactly what she was thinking. And although she loved that about him – them, she hated it too because never did she feel as transparent as when she was around him. And after hiding so much for her whole life, transparency was not an easy thing. "I don't mean that – after all we've been through, I know that this is us forever. But what exactly _is_ forever?"

"Forever is me and you growing old together Daphne." He chuckled softly as he rubbed his hand along her arm.

"How do you feel about marriage and kids though?" She sucked in a sharp breath, hoping that this was where their views wouldn't differ.

"I want nothing more than marriage and a family with you-"

She cut him off abruptly, "-I can't-"

He then cut her off again so he could finish his sentence, "But I know you don't want children, and that's okay. All I've wanted since I was eleven is you, and you will always be enough for me. But what about marriage… once upon a time that was where we were headed." He sighed.

"But once upon a time got ruined didn't it? Not that things were ever a fairy tale, but they were better then than they are now, in a way…" She trailed off, not really knowing the answer to his question and wanting to avoid it. Actually, she wished she had stayed off the subject all together.

"Daph, you didn't answer my question." He smirked, although the effect was ruined by the darkness of the room.

"What question?" She attempted to play the fool.

"Will you marry me?"

Her heart skipped a beat, and a heavy silence hung over the room. What could she say to that? Really, why would she say no? What was holding her back? But it was daunting… too daunting to accept at three in the morning. "I'm tired…" She feigned a yawn.

"Daphne Iris Greengrass, I am not going to bed until you answer me!" And then he leapt on top of her, smothering her with kisses.

She giggled, wriggling under his kisses. "Yes! Yes Blaise, I will marry you."

"I love you," He kissed her, "I love you," He kissed her again, "I love you." He kissed her a third time.

"And I love you," She said softly, kissing him again, "Forever and always."

* * *

A/N- The scenario for this one was one half of your couple ponders the future or your couple discusses the future (obviously, I did both halves of this prompt). I enjoyed writing this, so I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. I have to admit though, I am rather sad that I got zero reviews for the last chapter... any chance you guys can make up for that this time? ;) you're all wonderful anyway. Thanks guys!


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